What is Cloud Computing?

The Growth of Cloud Computing

What is Cloud Computing? It is a revolution that will change your business for the better, letting you work faster, cheaper and better…. and from anywhere, just about.

Cloud Computing is one term for Internet-based software and hardware platforms – basically, instead of installing programs on your own computer, you access them over the Internet – Gmail is cloud computing, in fact most of what Google offers is cloud computing – you access it via a web interface. Are you familiar with Hootsuite, the social networking client? That’s Cloud Computing – also known as a Web Application (Web App). Many of you probably already use Freshbooks (get it free from this link) – one of my favourite apps, that lets you track time and estimate & invoice easily.

It’s cool because it allows for a number of wonderful things – you can access your business information and applications from any internet connected device, so you’re no longer tied to one computer at your desk – PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad etc… You’ve got real-time business information always at your fingertips – which allows you to make decisions based on up-to-date, accurate company data.

Because it’s not tied to one computer, you’re in no danger of losing everything if that computer breaks – your data is stored securely in data centres with backup systems. Plus, you’ve always got your documents to hand, as long as there’s a device with an internet connection nearby.

Because you’re accessing the app over the web, the company that writes the app can quickly correct bugs and introduce new features – so you never have to buy new versions like you do with traditional software. New features to let you do things faster and better are added all the time. Web Apps companies are also very good at supporting their users, in my experience.

Web apps companies also tend to be much friendlier to each other than traditional software companies, even building their systems so your applications can talk to each other, your contact lists are linked to your customer management system, which links to your project system, which also links to your invoicing system which is linked to your accounting system – so you can automate many of your time-consuming tasks, and get a lot more done.

If you have a company, perhaps staff are located in several different locations. Web Apps are great for teams like this, because they easily allow you to collaborate with team members and share documents – you can even work on them in real-time together, despite being miles apart. You can set up and work on projects together, see what’s in the sales funnel, track customer interactions, arrange conferences, training, customer presentations, seminars… in fact any sort of meeting, online. Cloud computing is letting people work together better, faster, cheaper and more profitably.

My company, Ex Ignibus, specialises in web apps (cloud computing) for small businesses – we install Google Apps Premier Edition (GAPE) as the interface, linked with applications for accounting, invoicing, email marketing, customer relationship management, project management, word processing, spreadsheets – and lots more – for single person businesses up to large, geographically-separate, teams. Web Apps are inexpensive, and can be afforded by any business – it currently costs around $50 per user per year to buy GAPE, and many of the additional Web Apps offered are free as long as they’re integrated with the GAPE solution. Others cost between $10-$25 per month, usually increasing as your requirements increase – so you, as a small business owner, can get a pretty awesome business system for less than $50 per user per month – in comparison to regularly spending hundreds of pounds or dollars buying new software licenses for installable computer-based software. Many Web Apps are also free for micro-businesses (single employee or small team).

So, as you can see, cloud computing offers a new way of working which breaks free of traditional single-computer information and restrictive private networks, offering a secure, simple way for small businesses and teams to enjoy the kind of software that only large corporations could afford previously. The only software tied to my computer these days is Expression Web, Visual Basic and Photoshop – development tools I build sites with that demand higher processing power than most business apps and usually involve large filesizes. To try Web Apps out requires little or no investment, and could have massive positive effects on your business, so why don’t you give ‘em  a try? If you need a bit of help, drop me a line via the contact form at Ex Ignibus.

Take care and have fun out there,

Rob Bell

Sorry for getting you all excited about my return to writing today (I’m being sarcastic, not conceited!) – my regular readers know of my ongoing health problems, but for those of you who don’t – I broke my back twice falling out of the sky awkwardly in a couple of extreme sports accidents. I’ve damaged vertebrae, discs, nerves, my hip, sacroiliac joint and various other bodyparts, resulting in my walking with a stick these days…

Anyway today is what I have come to call a ‘Pain Day’ – when my back is incredibly painful leaving me almost incapable of achieving much that particular day, and confined to my bed, blitzed my an enormous array of pain killers. I’ve managed to get onto the computer for a little while as pain killers have temporarily improved the situation, but this will have to be a pretty brief post today.

Have you come across a site called Picnik yet? It’s a very useful image editing web application – it’s easy to upload your photos, edit them and add effects then share them among your friends and social networks. It costs nothing to use – although there is a pro option if you want extra filters and the ability to upload infinite pictures. If you don’t have Photoshop, or Gimp, you’ll find this a very useful site when you have photos you want to edit eg to get rid of red-eye, or you just want to make an existing photo more fun with special effects -

Check out vampire Rob…

So get yourselves over to Picnik – you don’t need to have a Photoshop-sized budget to do great work on your photos!

Hopefully, tomorrow will be a far less pain day – I have a meal out in the evening so it better be!

Rob Bell

The rise of web apps over the past year or two has been fast and extensive – I, for example, now run almost all my business processes through web apps – that talk to each other, passing data around to where it’s needed at that time. This helps me get things done faster, and to have far better contact with my clients throughout any business project. I also have applications that take away a lot of manual time-hogging processe, or give me greater coverage without extra work. I love it for a lot of reasons, of which 2 are listed here  – 1. because all my data is protected on servers in data centres, so a local hard drive crash won’t affect my business, and 2. because I can access the information and services I need from my business from anywhere there’s Internet connectivity – which includes on my Blackberry. I’ll have even greater integration next month when I get an IPhone because many of my application providers already have IPhone Apps, just waiting for me to integrate them into Robnet!

I keep an eye out for new web apps all the time, and look into any app that could offer me any of the following benefits:

1. It saves me money by reducing the cost of a business process
2. It saves me time by automating a process I previously did manually
3. It generates more income for me
4. It allows me to do something I couldn’t prior to using it
5. It allows for greater efficiency
6. It integrates with my existing application infrastructure
7. It improves my visitors’ experiences

Now the one I’ve discovered today is an absolute blinder – it has the most feature-rich interface I’ve ever seen, and eliminates the need to own Powerpoint or similar – it’s an online presentation application called 280 Slides, and here’s what I did on it in less than an hour – it’s a short intro to my new company Ex Ignibus. It was remarkably easy to do, and although not as heavily featured as Powerpoint, I can still access my presentations from anywhere with a Net link, and it has enough features to enable me to put together comprehensive presentations, on the fly. I recommend you check it for yourself – it’s free to use:

I’ve recently been playing about with the Google Connect and Facebook Connect applications – that let you implement social features on your site/blog. You’ll notice the new Facebook connect login section top left – it works fine for me, but I’d like some feedback – is it working okay for my readers?

Drop me a comment and let me know a. If you’re interested in using it, and b. How you found it if you have used it

I’m curious as to whether people see social features like this as something desirable or undesirable. Obviously from my point of view, I’d love to have some social functions beyond commenting on the site – and I’d be happy to see a ‘Tribe’ form here, as I believe my best writing is done when someone gives me a purpose to write for.

Went out for a delicious lunch today with my Mum – I haven’t been on an office Xmas lunch for years as I’ve not worked for anyone but myself for some years, so it was nice to try out Rustica, a new restaurant in Wakefield centre. Yea verily it was good! I particularly enjoyed the orange sorbet, although it was more like orange ice cream!

Adventures in North Yorkshire tomorrow, should be fun. I haven’t left West Yorkshire for months!!! One tends to get quite insular when winter brings additional back/hip pain, so a trip out will do me good, might take the camera too…